Leave Your Pink Boots in London

By: Daryl | February 19th, 2009

Quick recap: Just one day after deciding to buy Diego (attacking mid) over Foti (target man striker), I lost The Pog (my current target man striker) to a freak calf muscle explosion.

Such is life as a pretend football manager.

With the transfer deadline looming, I had to choose between signing Nicklas Bendtner, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Franco di Santos and no one.

I put up a poll yesterday, and got some great feedback in the comments (seriously, the advice I get here is way better than what I get from digital ass. man. Chris Hughton). But the poll finished a dead heat:

39% sign Bendtner
39% sign no one
22% sign Pavlyuchenko
0% sign Di Santo

That noise you can hear is Franco di Santo crying giant Argentine tears.

So I was in a tight spot. The basic logic seemed to go that I could make up for The Pog’s absence by sticking with Lewandowski and also giving Marquinhos an occasional go up front (not as a target man, but as a quick “run onto ball” striker). I 99% agree with that, and am definitely going to be doing it.

However, given the fact that I’m still in four competitions – Premier League, FA Cup, Carling Cup (final vs Arsenal soonish) and UEFA Cup – I definitely needed some extra squad depth. So here’s the solution I came up with:

1. Sell some fringe players. By transfer listing and offering them round, I managed to offload a couple of second stringers. Danny Guthrie went to Hull for £2.9m, and Daniel Sturridge (still only 21 but not good enough for my first team) for £3.4m. I know they’re not real, but I feel good about those sales as both will get first team football. This gave me enough money to…

2. Buy Bendtner anyway. After selling Guthrie and Sturridge I’ve raised enough to buy Bendtner (for £3.6m) without feeling like I’ve wasted money, since he’s likely going to contribute more than either of them would.

As long as he leaves the pink boots in London, then he’s welcome in Newcastle.

Here’s how I see this working: After three seasons on the Arsenal bench, Bendtner’s so lacking in match fitness that his legs have gone moldy. So while he regains some fitness I’ve got time to give Marquinhos a go as lone striker. And if that doesn’t work out (or even if it does) then I’ve still got Bendtner to come into my squad later.

Hopefully in time for the Carling Cup final where he could score a dramatic revenge-fueled winner against Arsenal.